By their nature, approved rulings are in the rulebook to provide clarification on certain football game situations. The football rulebook simply cannot anticipate anything and everything.
Do you really think it's a complete coincidence that the approved ruling FIRST showed up in the NCAA rulebook in 2007?
The rulebook was unclear in 2005. If the ref ruled Avant OOB, U-M fans would have no beef either. NEITHER PSU or U-M has a beef in this situation.
Your full of $hit as usual - the wording of the rules changes every year and they list a summary of changes in wording and completely new rules in the front of the rulebook
EVERY year. In regards to the
REQUIREMENT that your
ENTIRE FIRST FOOT LANDING stay completely in-bounds (Both Feet in the NFL), the rule has never varied -- again, your full of $hit as per usual. If any part of your
FIRST FOOT LANDING goes out-of-bounds during the act of "landing" (regardless of whether it is a heel-toe motion of running forwards, toe-heel action from moving backwards, your first foot coming back to the playing surface from jumping, etc.... the
REQUIREMENT is that your entire first foot stay completely in-bounds during the entire "landing" process and it has
ALWAYS been the requirement when the receiver is landing
FOOT FIRST you blithering moron!).
What changed in the Rule (and changed in the NFL Rule as well) were situations where a body part
OTHER THAN THE FOOT landed first. In those situations, it only mattered where the
FIRST CONTACT of that body part was and whether that
"FIRST POINT OF CONTACT" was first in-bounds even if portions of the body subsequently went out-of bounds (for instance, a players elbow is the first point of contact with the ground after leaving the ground to catch a pass, but after the elbow strikes, the remainder of the forearm SUBSEQUENTLY comes down out-of-bounds....or a knee hits in-bounds, but the upper-body SUBSEQUENTLY comes down out-of-bounds, etc....) - in these situations, where a
NON-FOOT body part makes
FIRST CONTACT in-bounds and then any portion of the body
SUBSEQUENTLY goes out-of-bounds, it is deemed a catch (hence the saying that many NFL announcers used after the change - "One knee = 2 feet" or "One Elbow = 2 Feet").
The rule was quite clear that the STANDARD had not changed relative to what it ALWAYS has been when the
RECEIVER was
LANDING FEET FIRST!!! Again, in this situation where the
RECEIVER was
LANDING FEET FIRST, the
REQUIREMENT was what it
ALWAYS HAD BEEN - specifically, the
RECEIVER'S FIRST FOOT LANDING must stay
INSIDE THE FIELD OF PLAY through the entire "first step" and the rule goes on to explain that a "dragging of the foot" without a step (e.g., a "toe drag") is considered a "second step".
In the case being discussed, Avant without question was "backpedaling" and landing upon the ground
FEET FIRST relative to the
CLEAR strictures of the rule. The rule clearly states that the entire
"FIRST STEP" of the FIRST FOOT LANDING is the determining factor (e.g., Avant did not "drag" his foot while maintaining the position it landed in-bounds in - e.g., a heel or toe drag - if he had a "drag" counts as a "second step", but contrary to your bull$hit claims, Avant undeniably was "backpedaling" where he was taking
STEPS where his toe would hit first followed by his heel and the rule is definitive in situations where the
FOOT is the first body part landing that the entire
FOOT and
STEP must stay in-bounds and the rule
ALWAYS has read that way in regards to
FOOT FIRST LANDINGS!!!
In your typical horse$hit fashion, you are attempting to reference language which was added to the rule to clarify situations where a
BODY PART OTHER THAN THE FOOT MADE FIRST CONTACT WITH THE GROUND AFTER THE RECEIVER LEFT THE GROUND AND CAUGHT THE BALL WHILE OFF THE GROUND! This is not the situation that APPLIED to Avant who was clearly moving backwards ON HIS FEET and the same rule that applies when a receiver is running forward
ON HIS FEET apply to the situation -- namely the requirement that the
FIRST FOOT LANDING and
FIRST STEP remain
ENTIRELY within the field of play often also termed
"IN BOUNDS" and if any part of the
FIRST FOOT LANDING and
FIRST STEP contact out-of-bounds stripe, the pass is
INCOMPLETE and the rule is quite unequivocal, and
ALWAYS HAS BEEN, about these
FACTS that pertain to the
ACTUAL SITUATION, not your made up bull$hit you imbecile!